Inexpensive Living Room Decorating Ideas

When looking for cheap living room decorating ideas, what could be less expensive than using what you already have? Cheap doesn’t necessarily mean buying shoddy living room furniture or poor quality decorative accessories. It means using a few inexpensive decorating ideas to help you create more style with less cash.

Budget decorating ideas come from many sources. The interior redesign technique popularized by television programs uses your existing furniture, art and home decor accessories in new and creative ways. Even the smallest living areas look fabulous using low cost decorating tips.

Affordable Living Room Decor

Using home furnishings in creative ways makes budget decorating easy. What’s old becomes new again. Start by taking a look at existing furniture, art, and accessories with a critical eye. Decide what goes and what stays. Furniture that no longer fits your tastes or lifestyle may be perfect in someone else’s home.

Host a swap meet or have a garage sale. The money you make may fund a new decorative accessory or pay for replacement furniture. If your budget is tight, you’ll find many discount living room furniture ideas for a variety of styles from companies such as Lane Furniture and Ashley Furniture.

Cheap Living Room Decorating Ideas

Consider donating the furniture to organizations that make home furnishings available for free to homeless families who are moving into permanent housing. You’ll get a tax deduction and they’ll have furniture to get them started in their new home.

For the furniture and accessories you decide to keep, think outside the box for fresh ways to use the pieces to decorate your home.

The Basic Ways of Inexpensive Living Room Decorating Ideas

To save your money, there are three basic ways to decorate your living room; reuse, recycle and refashion. By doing these ways, you also can help to decrease garbage and keep your environment. These are the examples of doing the basic three inexpensive decorating ways:

Reuse

An old footlocker or trunk can become a new coffee table in a rustic living room.

The twin bed your child outgrew becomes a settee when it’s placed against a wall and accessorized with decorative pillows.

Cheap Living Room Decorating Ideas

Recycle

Empty prescription bottles make tiny, unique bud vases. Wash them with warm, soapy water to remove any drug residue. Then line them along a mantle and place one small flower with the stem cut to about 2 inches in each container.

For larger flower arrangements, empty cans with printed labels make interesting vases in country living rooms.

Scraps of leftover wall paper, old newspaper clippings or flower seed packets can be inserted into identical frames and hung as a collection of abstract art. Choose the subject to fit your decorating style.

Inexpensive Decoration – Getting Intimate

Refashion

Rather than purchasing a new sofa or chair, use slipcovers to breathe new life into old pieces. In minutes you can update your room and make your furniture look brand new.

Steps of Inexpensive Living Room Decorating Ideas

You also can do these steps below to decorate your living room without spending much money:

To make your room look its best, cut down on the number of items in the room. Clutter takes away from the perceived space and elegance of a room. This is one of the best no-cost ways to give your room a lift.

Don’t move all the furniture against the wall. This is not a police lineup. This is a living room and guests need to sit close enough to talk to one another, so move the furniture closer together. It just requires muscle power.

Arrange conversation areas with chairs or sofa that will sit at least 6 people even in a small room. If the room is larger, divide it into areas that sit various groups of people from 2 to 6. Use the furniture you currently have to arrange cozy and intimate areas. As they say: “Talk is cheap.”

Minimalist Living Room Decor

Help define conversation and seating areas with area rugs. If you want your space to appear spacious, choose a lighter color. A darker color will make the room seem more intimate. If your space is large for multiple conversation spaces, make certain the color of each rug harmonizes (It doesn’t have to match). Since the rugs don’t have to match, you can pick up several on sale or find used rugs at the thrift shop. Cost: If you shop well, under $20.

In general, curtains or drapes look best in the color or dominant color of the largest piece of furniture. This helps bring the room together and provide a background for the design. If you can’t find drapes the color you want, try making them from sheets. Simply fit a rod through the large pocket at the top and let drape. Or dress up with window treatment with unusual items – like coat hooks and cabinet knobs. Cost: Again, if you shop well, under $20.

Put Recycle Pot as Living Room Decor

In general, the floors should be a little darker than the walls. This grounds the room design and provides a pleasing balance to the space. Your floors can be painted for a cheap and inexpensive change. If you have hardwood floors, they can be easily stained. If you are lucky enough to have tile, just add a rug. If you have carpet, cover the old carpet with area rugs or a large carpet remnant is a budget alternative to carpet replacement. Cost: Under $100.

Try placing art opposite the seating arrangement so that your guests can see it, not behind it so that the art is rarely enjoyed. Avoid the large, long painting behind the sofa. You know the kind I mean – the kind that comes from “starving artists.” Try making your own art with plain canvas and stripes. Either paint the stripes in colors to accent your room or use wide colored tape to quickly make stripes on the canvas. Or simple frame a beautiful piece of fabric. Cost: under $20.

Rug for Living Room’s Cheap Decoration

Bring in some live plants to give a feeling of nature in the room. While silk plants have a “real” look, there is nothing like the real thing. You can get plants for little or nothing. Just ask a neighbor if you can get a “start” from their plant. Place it in a pot with sufficient potting soil, water, and place in a well-lit space.

Add striking accessories to your room. Smaller accessories look better in groups, but avoid bringing in too much. There is a fine line between accessorizing and “clutter-izing” the room. Use what you already have, bring items from other rooms, or make simple accessories with empty bottles and vases filled with colored water, rocks, or sand.

Simple Living Room Wall Decoration

What you should remember about inexpensive living room decorating ideas is try to use what you have, save your money by doing three basic ways of decorating; reuse, recycle and refashion.